WAMP

Draft

Definition

The acronym WAMP (or Q.A.M.P.) refers to a set of free software programs commonly used together to run dynamic Web sites or servers:

• Windows, the operating system;
• Apache, the Web server;
• MySQL, the database management system
• The PHP (and sometimes the Perl or Python) programming languages.

See LAMP, the original Linux-based solution

WAMP for Windows products

For the Windows world there exist several complete packages that come with installers and a launch/stop/configure tool. Some also work for Linux, but I'd rather not use them on a real server.

• Also check out Wikipedia's Comparison of WAMPs.

WAMP5 / WAMPServer

• WampServer
• Also available on SourceForge (try this if the other is down)
• Supports PHP 5x and MySQL 5x (16:16, 4 December 2006 (MET)).
• This may be the best bet currently, but DSchneider didn't do any serious comparative testing.
• Only thing missing were some mysql excutables that some programs or yourself may need for command line operations (e.g. LAMS installer needs this).

EasyPHP

• Easy PHP.
• Used to be the most popular PHP 4.x package
• Daniel K. Schneider did not test the 2.0beta version yet (mai 2007).

How to upgrade EasyPHP if you really need to

I once managed to upgrade PHP4.x to PHP5.x in Easyphp 1.8 (in nov 2006)

• Empty the ./php directory and get PHP from PHP
• Edit php.ini and explicitly load php_mysql (for the php 4 this was not necessary)

extensions_dir = "./ext"
extensions = php_mysql.dll

XAMPP

• XAMPP
• Not tested by DSchneider.

WAMP for Windows running from a memory stick

WAMP servers that run off a memory stick, your camera or any device that can act as a windows drive. Usually these distributions have less functionality, but take up less space and need no installation at all.

The Uniform server

• Apache Httpd Server, PHP, Perl, and MySQL
• Plugins exist, e.g. for a Tomcat server, an FTP server etc.!
• The Uniform Server Homepage homepage, downloads,
• The Uniform Server documentation
• There are some distros that include popular packages (See below)

WOS

• Webserver On Stick and makes it possible, to run a webserver based on Apache, MySQL and PHP from an USB Stick or any other writable media (harddrive, flash cards etc.) without installation under Windows. 2 versions are free:
  • WOS, a small WAMP
  • WOS X, extends WOS with management tools (so you have to download WOS Portable first!)
• WOS Portable

Distributions of ready-to-run portals

There exist some distributions for packages like Drupal, Joomla etc. and that you can run usually directly from a memory stick or any other drive.

• E.g. Uniform Center lists a few of them.
• JSAS Joomla! StandAlone Server.

MAMP

• MAMP for your MacIntosh
• MAMP stands for: Macintosh, Apache, Mysql and PHP and can be used as light-weight developper's alternative to the built-in servers.

Running a mediawiki on your travel PC

To run Mediawiki 1.7 (and better) you need to have PHP 5.0 installed !

From [1]:

If you want to clone a Mediawiki from your "real" server

Export your database on the server and transfer the file to your PC (e.g. to c:\tmp\wikimedia.sql):

mysqldump -p base_de_donnees > fichier.sql

Example:

mysqldump -p wikimedia > /tmp/wikimedia.sql

Import the database in your PC

Firstly create a database on you PC-based MysQL server

I suggest to use the command line to do the import, because file upload is limited in a typical PHP installation (else reconfigure the parameters in the php.ini file).

In EasyPHP 1.8 the mysql.exe program is here:

\program files\Easyphp-XX\mysql\bin\mysql.exe

In WAMP 5, the file is here:

c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysql.exe

Open a terminal (DOS window, command prompt, or whatever it is called) and use this construct:

mysql.exe base_de_donnees -u root -p < path_to_sql_dump.sql

Example:

mysql.exe wikidb -u root -p < c:\tmp\wikimedia.sql 

Then wait for a long moment ...

Copy the MediaWiki server

• I suggest to zip the files on the serveur and then dezip exactly in the same place

Then, adapt the LocalSettings.php file

• • Change the DataBase user and password (on the PC I simply use the root)
  • You may have to ajust other things too, if you use short URLs on your production server, you may want to fix the Apache configuration on your PC too.

See ManageMediaWiki, my somewhat disorganized English/French installation MediaWiki management notes.